2010 in Review: The Top 10 of '10

A sign proclaims that American Marine Bank of Bainbridge Island had been taken over by the state Department of Financial Institutions. Columbia State Bank of Tacoma eventually took control of AMB.
(MEEGAN M. REID | KITSAP SUN file)

Construction of a new Manette Bridge began this year. The new span isn’t expected to open until 2012.
(LARRY STEAGALL | KITSAP SUN file)

LARRY STEAGALL

Harry Birkenfeld of Illahee fires his Beretta 9 mm rifle at Kitsap Rifle and Revolver Club in September. Kitsap County sued the club that month, alleging safety and land-use violations. The club is fighting the allegations in court.
(MEEGAN M. REID | KITSAP SUN file)

Meegan M. Reid

Molly Hightower

Kara Radabah

Shantina Smiley and Azriel Carver

KITSAP COUNTY - This week, the Kitsap Sun looks at the year that was. Our schedule for year-in-review stories this week:

An unusual series of officer-involved shootings, along with the mysterious and ultimately tragic disappearance of four county residents, were the top stories of 2010 in Kitsap.

Other top headlines included the county's lawsuit against the Kitsap Rifle and Revolver Club, budget woes in state government and work on the new Manette Bridge.

At least that's how newsroom staffers at the Kitsap Sun saw 2010. To vote for which stories you thought were most important this year, find the poll attached below.

1. Officer-Involved Shootings

Officer-involved shootings in Kitsap County tend to be rare, but that wasn't the case in 2010.

Police had not shot a suspect in Kitsap County since 2006, according to Kitsap Sun archives. But this year, there were four such shootings, as well as a fifth this month in Bremerton in which authorities believe a suspect committed suicide after exchanging gunfire with an officer.

Kitsap County Prosecutor Russ Hauge has already ruled that the first four shootings were justified under the circumstances. He acknowledged the uptick in officer-involved shootings this year, but said he found no pattern or reason for the increase, nor anything to suggest that they were the result of increased caution in the wake of six officers being killed in the line of duty in 2009.

"Any situation I reviewed in the last year, I could have reviewed in any other year," Hauge said.

The officer-involved shootings this year included:

* Suquamish Tribal Police officers Mark Brennan and Mark Williams, responding to a 911 call on Feb. 6 on Nelson Street, shot Sean Major of Suquamish as he drove a car at them. Williams and Brennan were both injured in the incident. Major recovered and was later sentenced to more than 5 1/2 years in prison for assault.

* Poulsbo Police Officer Darrell Moore fatally shot Matthew J. Netter of Bremerton on July 23 in a Silverdale parking lot. Netter had been over for swerving on Bucklin Hill Road during a DUI emphasis patrol that coincided with the Whaling Days festival. The investigation revealed that Netter was dangerously high on meth and had threatened Moore with a loaded pistol.

* On Sept. 11, off-duty Washington State Patrol Cpl. Jason Blankers shot Brent Bayliffe of Olalla, who had driven up to the trooper's house off Nelson Road for an unknown reason. Bayliffe, who suffered from bipolar disorder, hit Blankers in the head with a steel rod, according to investigators. Bayliffe died of his injuries.

* Bainbridge Island Police Officer Jeff Benkert shot island resident Douglas Ostling on Oct. 26 after Ostling had called 911 from his Springridge Road home. Ostling, who suffered from schizophrenia, allegedly threatened Benkert and another officer with an ax. Members of Ostling's family have a very different account of what happened that night, and legal action may follow in 2011.

* A Bremerton officer, whose name has not yet been released, exchanged gunfire with Kyle L. K. Hoapili of Port Orchard after a chase in Bremerton on Dec. 10. Hoapili then used his gun to commit suicide, according to the Kitsap County Coroner's Office. The Washington State Patrol is continuing to investigate and Hauge has made no ruling in the case.

2. Tragic Ends to Missing Persons Cases

Kitsap residents were shocked and saddened by the untimely deaths of three young Kitsap residents and the disappearance of another.

Molly Hightower, 22, of South Kitsap, who had just finished college at the University of Portland, was one of thousands killed in a deadly earthquake in Haiti in January. Hightower was working with orphans. She was on the fifth floor of a seven-story building when the quake started on Jan. 12. Family members held out hope that she would be found alive, but on Jan. 14 they received word she had died.

On March 13, Shantina "Kat" Smiley, 29, left with her 8-year-old son Azriel Carver for a drive from Silverdale to Castle Rock. The van she was driving was found empty in Puget Sound north of Olympia. Five days later, Carver's body washed ashore at the south end of Fox Island. His death was ruled an accidental drowning.

Smiley was never found.

Kara Radabah left her home on May 13 near Illahee State Park. Radabah had been diagnosed with symptoms of schizophrenia, and family members believed she was going through delusions when she left. They saw her twice in the park, but she ran off.

On Aug. 1 search crews went back to the park to search again. Radabah was found dead next to a creek down a steep ravine.

The legal complaint also alleges that the gun club had built shooting areas, berms and backstops without required county permits.

The safety hazards came to light as county officials investigated the land-use violations, according to Neil Wachter, a deputy prosecutor for Kitsap County.

Marcus Carter, the club's executive director, said the club has maintained a long-standing safety record. While physical structures may not prevent bullets from leaving the shooting range, safety procedures have prevented any problems. As for the land-use allegations, none of the construction activities require a permit, Carter said.

For the two-year period that begins in July, legislators are expected to have to cut another $4.6 billion. On the table are cuts in ferry service, including the possible elimination of Bremerton-Seattle runs later than 9:05 p.m., and the closure of Bremerton's Frances Haddon Morgan Center.

5. New Manette Bridge Taking Shape

A new Manette Bridge began rising from the Port Washington Narrows in 2010.

Politicians and transit officials gathered for a ground-breaking ceremony Aug. 17 at "Whitey" Domstad Viewscape. By the end of the year, crews from construction team Manson-Mowat, working from huge red-and-white cranes and barges, had completed five of the bridge's eight piers and moved on to its cross beams. The existing bridge was closed to cars about one day a week for concrete pours for the new one, but walkers and bicyclists could still pass.

The project had a couple bumps along the way. In July, an 80-year-old metal plaque commemorating the christening of the original bridge was stolen right off a trestle. The state had planned to give it to the city to use in an historical display.

In November, crews discovered an unexpected sewer pipe where a pier needed to go. The pipe had to be moved, which cost $1.5 million to $2 million and set back the schedule six to 10 weeks. Most of the time is expected to be made up, and the money came out of contingency funds built into the $57.8 million contract.

The new bridge is expected to open in late 2011.

6. Plans Finally Solidify for Tent City

The effort to start a temporary tent city somewhere in Kitsap County began last July, when Kitsap County Health District Director Scott Lindquist summoned social-service leaders to discuss the issue.

Unsanitary conditions had been discovered at an unauthorized tent camp of about 18 homeless people in woods off Highway 303. He was obligated to act, but didn't want to shut down the camp without exploring an alternative.

Leaders began looking at possible sites for an authorized tent city for families. A new count by the Washington Department of Social and health Services and the health district estimated that 1,854 people were out in the cold in January 2010.

The group visited Camp Quixote in Olympia in August to see how it was run. Initial sites were proposed and abandoned. In the end, the Bremerton Salvation Army proposed one adjacent to its downtown Bremerton facility, and planned to open it at the beginning of the new year.

7. Weather Turned Frightening in Fall, Winter

Wild weather took center stage in Kitsap County during the last two months of the year.

On Nov. 22, a sudden drop in temperature coupled with fierce wind toppled trees and coated roads with a treacherous glaze of ice. The timing of the abrupt weather change coincided with an afternoon commute that turned into a white-knuckle marathon. Highways were closed or blocked. Hundreds of abandoned cars littered Kitsap roadsides, though miraculously nobody died. The wind caused power outages to some 75,000 Puget Sound Energy customers, some of who remained in the dark and cold for days.

On Dec. 12, more than 6 inches of rain in a 24-hour period caused severe flooding that brought on flashbacks of the infamous Dec. 3, 2007, snow and rainstorm. Residents of two South Kitsap neighborhoods were stranded by washed out culverts. Washouts and mudslides blocked other roads. Stormwater runoff coupled with a particularly high tide turned Highway 3 at Gorst into a lake and bringing traffic to a standstill.

Early on the morning of Dec. 14, Diane Walker of Southworth was killed when a tree crashed onto her home during a windstorm.

Three major changes were approved during 2010 for the Navy's submarine force: Women were allowed to serve, a smoking ban imposed and President Obama signed the repeal of the military-wide "don't ask, don't tell" policy.

The Navy announced in the spring that it was lifting the ban on women serving aboard subs, the last warships with all-male crews. They had been barred on the theory that the close quarters and long deployments were unsuitable for coed crews.

The phase-in will begin with officers on the larger Trident ballistic missile and cruise missile subs because the boats don't have to be modified. Two of the first four subs to convert, the USS Ohio and USS Maine, are based at Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor. They'll each get two ensigns fresh out of college and 15 months of submarine training, and one lieutenant who'll serve as the supply officer. They're expected to join their boats in December.

President Obama on Dec. 22 signed a bill doing away with the ban on gays serving openly in the military, beginning the transition to an armed forces in which gay troops no longer need to conceal their sexual orientation in order to serve. The "don't ask, don't tell" policy he repealed was implemented in 1993.

On April 8, the Navy said it would ban smoking cigarettes below decks on submarines to protect sailors from secondhand smoke. The move was in response to a 2009 study by the Naval Submarine Medical Research Laboratory that showed the ill effects on nonsmokers.

The deadline was midnight on Dec. 31, but many boats didn't wait around, going smokeless as early as August.

If a sailor is caught smoking on board, the punishment is at the discretion of the sub's commanding officer. Submariners can still use smokeless tobacco, though the Navy highly discourages it.

The Navy provided smoking-cessation classes, counseling, and nicotine patches and gum to help those who wanted to quit.

9. YMCA Breaks Ground, Forms Partnerships in 2010

"Progress" is the word that would define 2010 for Central Kitsap residents and leaders who waited more than a decade to see a planned community campus come to life in the heart of Silverdale.

Construction began on the first building of what community leaders hope will be many on the campus this year. Ground was broken on a planned 85,785-square-foot Silverdale Haselwood YMCA in June.

The facility, which leaders expect will serve a membership of at least 15,000, is expected to open in the summer 2011. It will offer a rock-climbing wall, lap pool, lazy river, gymnasium, exercise equipment, and provide 3,000 square feet of space to Harrison Medical Center to provide preventive care services to the public.

With just one year of fundraising complete, the YMCA of Pierce and Kitsap Counties, the entity behind the Silverdale facility, has raised close to $10.5 million of its $12 million goal in 2010.

While making headway on the Silverdale project, the YMCA of Pierce and Kitsap Counties also took over management of the Bremerton Family YMCA, effective July 1, 2010. The Bremerton YMCA had previously been part of an umbrella organization called the Armed Services YMCA, which focuses only on serving military families; other Ys focus on serving geographic communities.

The YMCA of Pierce and Kitsap Counties also of the Glenn Jarstad Aquatic Center from the city of Bremerton in September. The city was looking to reduce expenditures, leaving the pool — which cost $418,000 annually to operate and maintain — on the chopping block until the YMCA deal was finalized.

Those hoping to use the pool in 2011 will have to buy a YMCA membership starting Jan. 1.

Columbia State Bank of Tacoma took over the 12 American Marine branches on the peninsulas and in Seattle.

Island residents expressed remorse at the failure of their bank used by generations of locals since 1948.

Much of the blame for the bank's failure was put on Rex Townsend, who served as president and CEO from 1998 to 2009. Also blamed were policies in place before Townsend that allowed the bank to take on a heavy load of risky real-estate and commercial loans that weren't sustainable when the economy slowed.

In the end, the fall was dramatic. The bank lost $30.5 million in 2009.